
'i\jituAjL^ d'aULL^^ (Tru^ (yf 




Glass. 



£.us3- 



7 



^ t 



^ 



f'i^k 



vim iB!^- 






MATT H. CARPENTER, 



At the Uedieation of the Metnorial 


HaUf Beloit 


■ 


College, 






J-XJL^ST, 1869 . 


i- */ 








1 

The Mission and the Future Foreign Policy of \ 




the United States. 






1/ 






MILW AUKBK: 


' 


i. U. TBWDAL.E, 


BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, COR. KABT WATBB AND HURON S'W. \] 




18«». 






C^ 












Mr. President, Ladies and Genttemen : 

The American people have just emerged from 
the thick darkness of national distresses : emerged, 
as no other nation could reasonably have expected 
to, from such dangers, triumphant, though bleeding 
at every pore. The first impulse of a great people 
on being delivered from eminent perils, is that of joy 
and thanksiz-ivinii: ; then comes i^ratitude for those 
by whose guidance, under God, safety has been 
attained ; then a sad reflection upon the fearful sac- 
rifices by which success has been purchased, and a 
tender recollection of those who have fallen in the 
strife ; and finally the composed mind gathers up the 
teachings of such a fearful experience: — wisdom for 
the guidance of future yeari^. On the surrender of 
Lee and Johnson in 1865, our people gave themselves 
up to the wildest rejoicings ; for a time the toils, the 
trials, the sufferings of four dreadful years were all 
forgotten ; business places were closed, our people 
rushed out of doors, impromptu processions filled the 
streets ; music led our exultant emotions as fiir as 
musical sounds could conduct them ; and then the 
roar of cannon and the shoutings of the multitude 
took up the joyful strain and bore it in tumult to the 
skies. Our people are fond of excitement, and may 
be aroused to enthusiasm upon slight provocation. 
But then the grounds for national rejoicing w^ere 



adequate and philosophical. Such dangers as had 
never threatened any government, had been avert- 
ed ; such a rebellion as the world had never seen 
had been suppressed ; such results as had never be- 
fore been accomplished by war, had been achieved. 
We plunged into the war cursed with the institution 
of slavery, three millions of our fellow creatures 
held in bitter bondage ; we came forth a nation of 
free men, equal in civil rights, no lonarer reco^nizino- 
any distinctions of caste or color. Our vouno- re- 
public had successfully ended the experiment of its 
existence, and for the first time took its place — a full, 
round, high place, — among the powers of the earth. 
We had to thank God, after the storms of war had 
passed, that we at last possessed, what our Axthers 
had hoped and prayed for, "a country, and that a free 
country . " 

Our people have shown their gratitude to their 
leaders in works more substantia! than words. They 
have raised Grant above the army to the chair of 
Washington. Sherman they have made their chief 
captain ; an appointment for life with annual salary 
second only to that of the President. Sheridan they 
have made the worthy lieutenant of such a captain ; 
and others have been rewarded, and are still to be 
honored, according to their great merits. The wid- 
ows and orphans of the war have been generously 
provided for. Everything that could be, has been 
done, to smooth the scars of a frightful struo-o-le. 



We have demonstrated that a great people know 
how to be both just and generous. 

And now, four years after the war, and after the 
immediate and pressing demands upon us have been 
fully satisfied towards those who survived and 
came hack to us from the battle field — we have come, 
in the midst of profound peaca and general prosper- 
ity, in this beautiful day of teeming summer, to show 
our reverence for those wJio came not hack from the ivar ; 
and to dedicate to their memory the beautiful hall 
which you have erected, monumental in form, and 
useful in fact ; thus uniting the memory of the de- 
parted with one of the great facilities for acquiring 
knowledge, a college library. 

Pericles delivered his great oration, which Thucy- 
dides has preserved for us, one of the grandest 
specimens of ancient art, standing by the unburied 
remains of those who had fallen on the field, and 
surrounded by weeping mourners whose anguish had 
not yet been soothed by the healing power of time." 
Nevertheless, by far the greater part of that ora- 
tion, is devoted to an examination of the character 
of Athenian institutious, to show that those who had 
fiiUen for Athens had not died for a vain or useless 
thing. We stand here to-day not in the freshness 
of individual grief; not to pay the last sad offices of 
respect to the outward material forms of those we 
have loved. Over their graves the green grass is 
waving and tropical flowers are cheerfully blossom- 
ing. Time has dried our tears and composed our 



emotions. The sister coines not to weep fcr the 
brother ; the father comes not to bend over the 
ghastly remains of his first born, not yet committed 
to sepulture. But we come as American citizens to 
thank God that in our deepest need the patriotism 
of our people was equal to the hour ; we come to 
reflect rather than to weep ; we come to gather up 
the lessons taught by their example ; to consider the 
fruits of the victory they have secured for us, and 
hence to deduce our duty as a nation in the great 
future which opens before us with immortal splendor. 

You have just been addressed by Professor Emer- 
son, specially upon the character and services of those 
whose names are to be engraved upon the tablet of 
honor in this memorial hall. He knew them personal- 
ly, loved theni well, and has spoken of them with the 
tenderness befitting his theme, and an earnest elo- 
quence becoming to himself. I shall therefore 
devote the short time allotted to me to a considera- 
tion of the character of our government and its dut^^ 
in the immediate future. 

God never made a man for the sake of making 
him; nor that he might amass wealth and corrupt 
himself with its enjoyment. Every man is sent into 
the world with certain qualities to be cultivated and 
developed ; charged with duties to be performed, 
and clothed with responsibilities commensurate with 
his power; sent into the world that some other may 
be better for his having lived. So with nations ; 
they grow up not for themselves alone ; they are 



ordained of God ; they are the instrumentalities by 
which God accomplishes his purposes towards the 
huni.in rnce. They who study human history, they 
who believe in the Gospels of Christ — helieoe that 
the ver/j htirs of our head are numhcrjd and that nut a 
sparrow falls wlthmd His notice— <mi\uoi doubt that 
Empires come and go, and States are born and perish, 
in obedience to His sovereign will. Assuming that 
God is the founder of nations, tiiat they are protected 
by His power, continued for His ends, and discontin- 
ued wlien they are no longer servicable, — either 
because their mission has been accomplished, or they 
have shown themselves unfit to accomplish it, and 
have thus become cumherers of the gj-ouiid,~-we may 
take up the history of any nation nnd reverently 
study the purpose for which God created it. Take 
for inst.inoe tlie Israelitish nation; consider it in the 
light of its surrounding conditions, study the principles 
which were given for its guidance ; read the solemn 
warning of Mo es in that great farewell address 
before they crossed the Jordan : 

" Beware that thou forget not the law of thy God, 
" innot keeping his commandments, and his judgments, 
' and his statutes, which I command thee this day ; 
'' lest when thou has eaten and art full, and hast 
"built goodly houses and dwelt therein ; and when 
"• thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver 
" and thy gold is multifdied, and all that thou hast 
" is multiplied ; then thy heart be lifted up and thou 
^'forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth 



6 



" out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bonclnge, 
" * * * and thou yny in thine heart, my povjer 
"and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this 
" wealth ; * * and it shnll be, if thou do at all 
*• forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other Gods, 
'■^ and serve them, I testify against you this day that 
" ye shall surely perish : as the nations which the 
'' Lord d'^stroyeth before your face so shall ye perish ; 
" because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of 
^* the Lord your God;" Then study the subsequent 
histor}' o± that nation, its prosperity in obedience, 
its utter destruction when obedience ceased ; and it 
would be neither rash nor irreverent to conclude that 
God created that nation to preserve the knowledge 
and the worship of the one true God, amid the 
idolatry of surrounding nations ; and that He des- 
troyed it, because it had ceased to perform the duty 
for which it had been called into existance; ceased to 
breathe the Spirit that God had breathed into it at 
its birth. Its internal structure might be changed 
to suit changing circumstances ; it might be ruled 
by one law-giver like Moses, or by Judges or 
Kings ; all that was immaterial ; but the essential 
condition of its prosperity, nay of its existence as a 
nation, was the worship of one God ; and when this 
condition failed, the nation died. 

So we might take up the history of Greece or of 
Rome, and by studying what part it performed in the 
advancement of man's civilization, the circumstances 
under which it prospered, and the conditions under 



which it declined as a nation, and thus deduce the 
purpose of God in establishing it as a nation. To 
such a method of examining the character of our 
government I desire to turn youv thoughts ; not to 
its non-essential features^ the structure of its frame- 
work, the division of its powers, or the excellency 
of its internal adaptation ; but to its spirit, its hea/- 
en imposed duty, the conditions under which it may 
hope to prosper, the dereliction under which it may 
apprehend the frown of God. 

Human liberty is the essential condition of utmost 
human development. The child must, be governed, 
disciplined, encouraged and restrained, by the pa- 
rent ; all this tends to develop him into manhood. 
But there comes a time when he must be leit free to 
act, free to think, free, so far as power is concerned, 
to chose between good and evil. So with the race ; 
the authority of kings and the superintendence of a 
priesthood may aid its infancy ; but there comes a 
stage of development in which freedom is the only 
condition of higher attainments. Many a child dies 
never knowing the independence of manhood ; 
many a nation has disappeared, and others will disap- 
pear, cursed to the last by the tyrany of kings and 
priests. 

The tvise men came from the East; they jour- 
neyed towards the West. Starting from utter 
darkness of absolute despotism in the East, and 
coming Westward, the dawn brightens and the 
day shines. On the utmost verge of Europe, a 



little removed from Europe, an island in the Atlan- 
tic, England had advanced, in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, as far towards liberty as was consistent with 
the stiucture of her gov^ernment. With a feudal 
foundation, a king and an aristocracy, she had 
reached vantage ground in the march ; had secured 
many of the blessings and some of the rights of a 
free people. The British monarchy had been the 
Moses of the nations; she had led the race in sight 
of the promised land, but now she wns begining to 
wane. 

Further advance she could not make under her 
form of government ; and her time for revolu- 
tion had not yet arrived The power of the 
monarchy was great, the aristocracy were num- 
erous and powerful, the republican element was 
small, the spirit of liberty and equality though 
growing, was still weak. A little band of patriots, 
of od fearing men, lovers of liberty because lovers 
of God. too few to stand upright in England, too 
resolute of purpose to submit to tyranny, turned their 
steps , still westward, and in mid v, i>iter planted the 
empire of freedom upon this then unpromising conti- 
nent. It is quite unnecessary, for you are as familiar 
with it as I am, and time would fail me, to dwell upon 
i\\[- details of that settlement, and the settlement of 
other colonies upon these shores. I o\\\y refer to it, 
to ask you ; who protected them, from famine, from 
dissensions internal, from dangers external, fro n 
the inclemency of the elements, and the hostility of 



savac'es ? Who gave them the courage and inspired 
thenrwith the faith equal to their great taslc ? Turn 
over in your own minds for I have no time even to 
refer to the strange incidents in their wonderful his- 
tory verifying our belief that God superintends the 
founding of states ; follow the colonies through their 
infancy, down to the commencement of the revolu- 
tion which ultimately separated them from the 
parent state and made us an independant nation, 
and then say; do you believe God had no part no de- 
,i„n in all those wonderful events ? He saw the end 
from the begining ; and the begining would not have 
been if the end had not been intended. It is true 
that the love of liberty in their he.arts, the tyranny 
of their king, their fleeing to these shores, their 
founding of a free comm.uwealth, their growth to 
power as a people, were all natural events. No 
supernatural intervention attests God's purp > m 
their case. No thunders rolled down the mountains, 
no summer led them over the wintry se.a, no law of 
na^ure was reversed for their aid or protection. It 
we were about to send a colony to take possession ot 
a distant continent, we should make great display 
about it ; have long processions and longer orations. 
When we send an Envoy Extraordinary to a fc • Mgn 
power we send him in a government vessel, we land 
him from beneath the star spangled flag, and amid 
the roar of cannon to notify our foreign neighbor 
that the United States has seat him to her shores. 



10 



But God's '' ways are not as our wnys, nor his 
thoughts our thoughts. " Tie " speaks in his works, " 
Jesus came an Envoy from heaven to earth, not in 
the glory which he had with his father before the 
world was ; not by angels attended through the 
opening heavens ; bui he came not the less directly 
from the Father. 

On the 4th of July, 1776, our fathers met in sol- 
emn council, and promulgated to the world the prin- 
ciples which were to be our chart as a nation, and 
assumed a place among the nations of the earth. To 
that event and that day we refer our birth as a na- 
tion. Let us consider for a moment the great dis= 
tinguishing principle upon which our institutions 
were based. We boast that that was the commence- 
ment of a new order of political things. Let us see 
for a moment in what that declaration differed from 
prior fundamental articles of political and govern- 
mental faith. 

The brotherhood of man, the absolutely equal 
rights of all men, the right of all to partici- 
pate in the privileges and benefits of civil 
government, as they share its burdens, although to 
our minds familiar and self evident truths, have 
dawned gradually upon the world, and made their 
way slowly into creeds of men. The Jew denied 
to every one not a Jew, not only the rights of 
citizenship in temporalities, but all hope of enjoying 
the blessings of heaven. The gentile might indeed 



11 



be adopted into the Jewish commonwealth, but as a 
gentile he was nobody. When Perioles boasted 
that in Athens all men enjoyed equal privileges, 
and were preferred for their merits and not for their 
birth, he spoke in a city of which no inconsiderable 
portion of its inhabitnnts were si ives. By all men 
he meant all Athenians ; he did not recognize that 
any but Athenians were men. Jesus first burst the 
bonds of national selfishness. He came to establish 
a kingdom that should know no end, be united with 
the destinies of no nation, which should survive all 
and supercede all ; and it;j foundations were laid 
broadly accordingly. The Jew, the Gentile, the Scy- 
thian, the Barbarian, the Bond, the Free, the Black and 
the White, were invited to equal benefits in His King- 
dom. He first taught principles broad enough to 
include nil nations, races and colors in a comm'>n 
benefit. The declaration of our independence, the 
corner stone of our nationality, was mans first at- 
tempt to introduce the liberality of christian prin- 
ciple into the franii work of civil government ; it 
wns a declaration — not that all Americans, all 
Englishmen, all Frenchmen were equal — but that 
all mm were equal ; no matter where born, no mat- 
ter -whether learned or ignorant, rich or poor, black 
or white. It deduced the right to equality before 
the law, the right to participate in civil government, 
not from the accident of birth or condition, nor yet 
from race or color, hut from the fad of manhood alone. 
Upon this principle, as the one great faith of our 



12 



people, the ideal we intended to realize, the consum- 
mation we pledged ourselves to the accomplishment 
of, our fathers appealed to the God of battles, and 
succeeded. A more solemn covenant was never en- 
tered into between a nation and the God of nations. 
Upon that principle we stood through eight years 
of bloody war against one of the most pow- 
erful nations on the earth. Without an army, with- 
out a navy, without an exchei.uer, we stood, and 
withstood all the power of England, because truth 
will always stand, and right triumph over wrong, 
while God sits on the throne of the universe. 

But alter war had established our right to self 
government, and we came to fashion a govern- 
ment, this principle was not fully carried out. Slav- 
ery existed as a fact ; and our fathers temporized 
with the condition of things. In the constitution 
they virtually secured the slave trade until 1808, 
and substantially guaranteed slavery in the states, 
until the states should abolish it. It is due to 
our fathers, however, to say that they expected 
slavery would soon be abolished by the states. No 
man who signed the constitution expected slavery 
would survive thirty years. But, — and perhaps to 
show the sad consequence of ever compromising with 
evil,-— the event did not realize the expectation. The 
introduction of the cotton plant made slavery profit- 
able ; and gilded vice too often finds favor. The 
South first excused, then justified, then clamored for 
the extension of slavery ; and down to the com- 



13 



menceraent of the rebellion in 18G1, no man could 
see how the nation couM purge itself of this mon- 
strous sin. By civil means it could not. The con- 
stitution had put it out of the power of the nation, 
by committing it to the states where slavery existed; 
and those states would not abolish it. Our states- 
men in 1850, resolved to cure the evil by wholly ig- 
noring its existence. They solemnly resolved that 
the subject should never again be alluded to in or 
out of con<j:ress. That all a<>'itation should cease. 
This was securing to the country peace according to 
the wisdom of time serving politicians; but their 
wisdom was quite different from " the wisdom that 
is from above [which] \^ first pure, then peaceible." 
The so called "compromise measures" of 1850 were 
designed to secure peace ; but they were a solemn 
prediction of war. From that moment it was evi- 
dent that no peaceful measures would be adopted to 
redress the great wrong of three millions of our 
people ; and then it became evident also, that the 
whole country must soon become slave country or 
frje countr}^ And after ten years of preparation 
on the part of the South and ot criminal inactivity 
on the part of the North, the two sections drew the 
sword to determine the question of liberty or slav- 
ery for all the states ; and during four bloody, dis- 
mal years, "hope and fear did arbitrate the event." 
Grievously had we sinned and grievously did we 
answer it. Army after army .ushedtothe conflict ; 
hundreds after hundreds were laid in their graves ; 



14 



the land was baptised with blood. It was in this 
strife that your companions, whom to-tlay you honor, 
went forth with faith in their hearts, prayers on 
their lips, and the sword in their hand to stand and 
to fall for truth, for justice, for liberty and lor God. 
Often in the darkness of those fearful years our 
sight failed us ; we could see no light ; but our peo- 
ple stood up strong in faith that God ruled the uni- 
verse, and that our cause was safe. This fiith car- 
ried us through the gloom. And finally in God's 
good time we emerged into the light of a triuraph- 
ent and honorable peace. In this war our people 
expiated the sjn of slavery and then tlie curse was 
withdrawn. And our nation stands to-day regenera- 
ted and renewed ; won by fearful evidences back to 
its first love, — universal lihcrl/j. Now for the first 
time in the history of our nation it is true as a fact, 
Avhat our fathers announced as a theory, that all men- 
are created equal. Now our re-constructed Union 
takes its place among the nations, the standard bear- 
er and the champion of the riglitsof man. Our in- 
fancy is over ; our pupilage past, our manhood 
attained. We are no longer to flee from city to city 
to escape observation, no longer to bid men not to 
mention our works, no longer to feed on the wild 
flirs of BethanV' ; we have come into our own king- 
dom, and are ready to make up our jewels. 

Let me pause in thought one moment at the close 
of the late war, and asking you to recall your emotions 
as the war progressed, your doubts, your fears, the 



15 



magnitude of the conflict, the bitterness of oiu* ene- 
mies, the unfriendly attitude of foreign nations, all 
the obstacles overcome, the dangers past ; then let 
me ask if you do not believe that the hand of God 
in an especial manner led us through this sea of 
troubles tothedry land of peace? If you believe your 
bible you do believe that God interfered by special 
providences, to secure the deliverence of the children 
of Israel, from the land of Egypt. Turn to that his- 
tory once more, and read again of the successive 
plagues that fell like so many blows upon the heart 
of Egypt, before she would consent that her slaves 
miiirht u-o forth. Then consider the similar conduct 
of the south ; how without war, slavery would have 
been continued ; how long after the war had begun, 
the south might have laid down their arms and kept 
the slaves ; how after the war was ended, the south 
might have determined the question of negro suff- 
rage ; and how by repeated obduracy amounting to 
absolute stupidity, the south has forced the govern- 
ment to free the slaves and finally raise them to the 
full enjoj'ment of legal and political rights ; then let 
rae ask : do yon see no parallel ? 

Another coincidence, and I will leave this part of 
the subject. It would te interesting to consider, 
but time forbids, the analogies that run through the 
universe moral and material ; and to point out how 
strangely, if it is mere accident, similar things, though 
age distant in point of time, are siuiilarly sur- 
sounded. 



IG 



Jesus was " a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief." His public ministry was one of toil and trial, 
lie was beaiins: the worlds burdens, touched at its 
sorrows, and suffering for its sins. We read of him 
walking up the mountain, walking on the waters, ag- 
onizing in prayer, and weeping at the grave of him 
whom he loved. On one occasion, and on one only, 
He employed the semblance of a triumph. Once 
he rode into Jerusilam; rode over a way sprink- 
led with the garments of his disciples and the 
green branches of Judem palms ; rode in triujnph, 
amid the shoutings of the multitude ; ^' Ilosnina to 
the son of David." The day upon which this event 
transpired is celebrated by the church, and for des- 
ignation it is styled "Palm Sunday." On the next 
Friday — "Good Friday," Jesus gave up his life, and 
was laid in the tomb. 

I am not appealing to any superstitious feeling, nor 
drawing any irreverent comparison ; merely noting 
a remarkable co-incidence. President Lincoln took 
the helm of state amid the storms of war. For four 
years he suffered the anguish his situation imposed, 
he mourned with the mourners, he wept and pray- 
ed for the deliverance of his people. But finally, 
on a bright Sabbath morning in April, 1865, Lee 
surrendered the rebel hosts to Lincoln's captain and 
the war was ended. The news flew on the wires all 
over the land. That was a day of national rejoic- 
ing. None of us will ever forget it. On that day 
the clergy ministered in the usual way, at the altar. 



17 



And old deacons, accustomed by life long discipline 
never to turn their backs upon the "illuminated tem- 
ple of the Lord," remained to attend the morning and 
evening sacrifices as usual. But where were the 
people? In the streets wild with excitement of 
joy. There are times when the Christian heart is 
too full for mere utterance ; times when the roar of 
cannon and the shoutings of the multitude are as 
genuine, — may t'ley not be as acceptable, — praise 
as the chanted psalm or the whispered prayer. So 
Miriam went forth, celebrating the deliverance from 
the Red sea, and led the women of Israel with tim- 
brels and dances, chantini*; that immortal sonii; of 
human exultation, " Sing ye to the Lord, for lie hath 
'• triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath 
•' He thrown into the sea, " 

This first happy day of President Lincoln's official 
life, the first happy day of our people for four long 
years, chanced to fall on the "Palm Sunday "of 1835. 
The next Friday — " Good Friday " — Lincoln was 
shot. Mere coincident ; mere accident ; yes ; but 
human history is full of such suggestive accidents. 

In passing from our first proposition, that Crod has 
established this nation, watched over it in an espi- 
cial manner, and protected it by special provi- 
dences ; it is encouraging to think that such is the 
belief of our people. It crops out every where ; 
from the pulpit, in the press, in the speeches of our 
public men, in the conversation of our people. All 
speak the language of hope, of young ardent hope, 



18 



and faith in God's superintending providence. In 
no other nation is this so eminently tiue. Look at 
the condition of old England to-da}^, and read the 
suggestive debates in the House of Lords on the 
Irish church bill. The Lords speak as though they 
were oppressed with the belief that there is no future 
for the monarchy. England stands to-day in the de- 
crepitude of age, folding about her the shabby robes of 
worn out custom; "perplexed wilh the tear of 
change ;" unable to advance ; unable to suppress 
the influences which are advancing step by step to 
throw open the temple of exclusive and heriditarj^ 
privilege to the admission of the profane populace. 
" The voice of the people," when it utters the settled 
faith of a nation, " is the voice of God." 



And now, in the firm belief that God in his prov- 
idence established this nation for a purpose, — to stand 
as a bulwork among the nations for the protection 
of the rights of man — ,that it will prosper in propor- 
tion as it is true to the purpose of its institution, 
and will cease to be, whenever it no longer performs 
its duty ; that its manhood is attained, and its time 
for action arrived, it remains to enquire, tvhat can we 
do in the interest of universal liberty ? 

With a nation, its field of labor, is the world. The 
civilized powers of the earth in the society of na- 
tions, stand in much the same relation to each other, 
that individuals hold towards each other in civil so- 



19 



cietj ; and their intercourse is regulated by the hiw 
of nations, which Montesque says is, "founded on 
"the principle, that different nations ought to do 
" each other as much good in peace, and as little 
"harm in war, as possible, without injury to their 
"true interests ;" and we may add, without injury to 
the true interests of mankind. Nations are equal in 
rights, and wholly independent of each other. And 
every nation has an absolute right, as regards its 
neighbors, to establish such form of civil polity as 
it pleases. If any people prefer a Republican or a 
monaichial government they are entitled to have 
it ; and no other nation has the right to interfere. 
This is the undoubted doctrine of the Law of Na- 
tions ; and every nation is bound to observe it ; and 
any nation which violates it, gives cause of offence 
to every other nation ; because each is interested 
that this law should be observed by all. Thi:^ law 
then, is our law, both in its restraints and in its priv- 
ileges. All that we do as a nation must be done in 
obedience to its provisions ; and we have an un- 
doubted right to require of all other nations the 
same obedience. Any intervention on our part to 
coerce the establishment of republican institutions 
in Spain, would be an infraction of this law ; and 
any intervention by England or France to establish 
monarchy over that people would be equally un- 
lawful . 

We have said that our field is the world ; let us 



20 



look over this field, and see if there is ought that 

we can do. 

England is the first country we meet, surveying 

the field eastward, and her present condition and 
the relations which exist between that government 
and ours, merit a more extended consideration than 
the time will warrant. The first thing to be exam- 
ined there, because at present it is engrossing all 
her thought, is the contest hourly growing hotter 
and hotter between the people and the privileged 
classes. In form she has a monarchial government; 
a queen ; a house of Lords representing the nobility, 
the landed aristocracy, and the Established church 
of the realm ; and a house of commons standing for 
the people. The house of commons is overwhelm- 
ingly republican; the house of Lords is as thorough- 
ly wedded to existing abuses in church and state ; 
the houses are engaged in a fierce struggle for 
supremacy ; and the queen is a silent and powerless 
observer of the contest. The commons have passed 
a bill disestablishing the Irish church ; the Lords 
after the most violent and disorderly debate ever 
known in that house, — a debate during which by- 
standers for the first time in English history groaned 
at the nonsense of a Lord — destroyed the effect of 
the bill by amendments, which the commons have 
indignantly rejected. The difi'erence between the^ 
houses is one of principle which no committee of 
conference can reconcile, and one house or the 
other, must recede ; and it is certain that the com- 



21 



mons will not, because they are supported by the 
people ; and the voice of the people is omnipotent 
even in Great Britain. This bill may be delay- 
ed, it cannot be defeated. When it becomes a 
law, there is no principle upon which the es- 
tablishment of the English chnrch can be defend- 
ed, and it must go with the Irish church. Then 
the Bishops must leave the house of Lords ; and 
then the House of Lords, purged of its only popu- 
lar element, maj' well apprehend the accidents 
which John Bright threatened them w^ith ; and the 
crown itself will be in equal danger. Revolutions 
in popular feeling never go backwa: ds The move- 
ments in Enghmd at the present time, give goodlj'- 
pr..:mise that ot no distant day Great Britain will be 
a republic in lorni as it already is in substance. At 
all events it is safe to predict that the people of 
England will hereafter control the government what- 
ever may be its form. 

The condition of our relations with that ii'uvern- 
ment enables us either to aid or embarrass the liber- 
al party in England, without any violation of the 
law of nations. During the late war, that govern- 
ment was in the hands of the tory part}^ ; and the 
aristocracy of England sympathized as was to have 
been expected, with the slave holding aristocracy of 
the south. The pirate ship Alabama, was built in 
full view of the government ; its intended use was 
well known ; it was manned with English Seaman, 
and was in all respects, except its commander, an 



22 



English vessel. It went forth to prey upon our 
commerce, in the interest of a slave-holder's rebel- 
lion. The actual damage to our shipping and mer- 
chandise, as shown by claims filed in the office of the 
Secretary of State, amounts, it is said, to nine mil- 
lions three hundred thousand dollars, in round num- 
bers ; a large sum certainly, but still a sum that we 
can save by economical administration, before break- 
fast. This sum is capable of exact "liquidation, 
and must be paid in money, whether England 
remains a monarchy or becomes a republic. But 
we may Fuit the time and manner of enforcing 
this claim to circumstances ; and thereby may indi- 
rectly exert a powerful influence upon English poli- 
tics. Our government may pay these claims to our 
citizens ; and charge the amount in the great ledger 
of national accountability ; to be collected when we 
please, and as we please; through the slow methods 
of diplomacy, or by the quick, sharp, process of re- 
prisal and war. This acknowledged claim against 
England, in the hands of our government, is worth 
more than its face, and is the most effectual bond we 
could hold against Enghmd to keep the peace. 

But this claim is only a drop in the bucket, of the 
great injury committed by England upon American 
interests, the rights of man, and the cause of liberty, 
during the war. She lost no opportunity to increase 
our difficulties, to prolong the war, to ensure the utter 
destruction of this great and much envied republic. 
She furnished rebels with arms and money, she gave 



OQ 



countenance to their presumption, and encourage- 
ment to their wickedness, in every possible way. 
The injuries committed by the Alabama fell upon 
our material interests and may be repaired by time 
and industry. But our pecuniary injuries do not 
measure the transgressions of England. Hers was 
a crime against humanity and the moral sense of the 
world. It is incapable of computation in figures ; 
it cannot be paid in money. Nor should we by ac- 
cepting money for this injury, say to the world, that 
we are a nation of pedlers ; tlsat we look only to 
cash balances ; that any foreign nation is at liberty 
to fire upon our flag, insult our sovereignty, wring 
our noses, and send us a check 

The insolence of England in the matter of Ma- 
son and Slidell, was even more insupportable than 
the injuries she committed by the Alabama. 
They were on their way to Europe in a British 
vessel, one the accredited representative of the re- 
bellion to the court of Victoria, and the other to the 
court of Napoleon. An American naval officer 
boarded the vessel, and arrested these ministers 
plenipotentiary of treason, and lodged them safely 
in a military stronghold of our government. Con- 
ceding this proceeding to have been irregular, and 
technicall}^ a violation of the rights of a neutral 
power, yet what an admirable opportunity it afford- 
ed England to show a friendly feeling towards 
our government. We were in a hand to hand struar- 
gle for our national existence. England w^as at pro- 



24 



found peace with all the world. Years might have 
been employed by that fat and lazy old monarchy 
in investigations, in asking from our government the 
circumstances of the case, and thus giving us an op- 
portunity to release these traitors, if they must be 
released, without suffering any humiliation. In 
1837, when Canada was in revolt, the ship Caroline, 
was, or was supposed to be aiding the Canadian 
patriots. A British force invaded our territory, cut 
her loose fram her moorings in American waters, 
and sent her a riven monument of British wrath, 
blazing over the cataract of Niagara, Ireighted with 
the dead body of at leasi one American citizen. 
A clearer case of the actual invasion of a neutral 
power, a more wanton violation of the law of na- 
tions, never was seen. Yet this offense was suffered 
by our government to go for four years through the 
easy stages of diplomacy, and it was finally settled in 
the correspondence which led to the Webster-Ash- 
burton tieaty,by Ashburton's saying he was sorry, 
and Webster's saying that would do. But our friendly 
forbearance was not followed by England in the 
case of Mason and Slidell. Upon the ex- 
parte reports of her own subjects^ England 
decided the case in her own favor, and sent us a 
peremptory demand for an apology and for 
the immediate release of the traitors. Three days 
afterwards, the French government evidently at the 
instigation of England, directed the French minis- 
ter at Washington to inform our government how 



25 



deeply aggrieved France r.as at the outrage we had 
committed upon England. This combination of two 
great nations was intended to overawe and brow- 
beat our government, and I never can think of 
Seward's reply to England's demand without feeling 
that the design completely succeeded. That reply, 
in seventeen solid pages, more or less, is the most 
uncandid and sbameful paper that ever eme- 
nated from an American Secretary of State. It 
asserted (1) that we hid a perfect right to take 
these rebels; (2) that we had lio right whatever to 
take them ; (3) that we were agoing to give them 
up ; and (4) that we would not do so if it 
were of any consequence to detain them. After 
determining to release these prisoners Seward's re- 
ply should have been couched in ten lines. He should 
have informed England that her demmd was tech- 
nically right, and was acceded to because it was 
right ; and that the direct manner and curt style in 
which she had made her demand would be the pre- 
cedent we should follow in demandin*i" our ri^j^hts of 
England in the future. 

For all these injuries and all this insolence, we 
have a right to hold England responsible, as one 
nation must answer to another ; we have a perfect 
right to go to war with her if we please ; and this 
right will keep. We can bide our time ; select the 
occasion ; and if in some crises of her political 
destiny we should see that it was in our power, by 
enforcing our utmost rights by war, to be an instru- 



26 



ment in the hands of God to avent^e the outrno-es 
committed by that blood-stained monarchy, and in 
establishing the preponderance of the republican 
element of her people ; no principle of the law of 
nations would be violated, that we had chosen that 
moment for the stern enforcement of our just rights. 
One nation in dealing with another is at liberty to 
hold the whole nation responsible for the wrongs 
committed by the governing clas^ of the offending 
nation. But a generous and powerful nation is not 
bound to enforce its just demands unless it pleases 
to do so ; and will not, whenever it can see that the 
injury to be inflicted by war would fall upon guilt- 
less heads. And we ought not to ignore the fact 
that, although the aristocracy of England, which 
happened at that time to be the government, were 
most unfriendly to us, the people of England ivere 
our friends. There is not a grander instance of self- 
sacrificing devotion to principle in the history of the 
world, than was exhibited by the manufacturers of 
England in the sturdy resolution with which they 
stood up for the rights of our government, testify- 
ing their sympathy for our cause, in the midst of a 
population starving for want of employment. Cot- 
ton they could not obtain, without recognizing the 
independence of the South. Yet they elected to 
suffer whatever hardships might come to themselves 
rather than wink at so great a national crime ; and 
they kept so keen a watcn and so steadj^ an eye 
upon their government that it dare not recognize 



27 



the South. A decL'iration of war at this time would 
visit its losses and hardships, so far as England is 
concerned, upon the very classes who were our warm 
friends, and did and suffered everytliin,i^ they 
could for our sake. The aristocracy of England 
would not fight many battles, nor pay much in tax- 
ation. The people of England who were not at 
fault, would thus be made to expiate the sins of their 
rulers which they steadily protested against when 
committed. This we do not desire. In a spirit of 
generous statesmanship, let us rather say to our 
brothcir republicans of England, "you have got the 
aristocracy on a down grade, noiv push them. We 
will wait for our ten millions, actual pecuniary loss, 
until you get into power and can pay it ; and when 
you have trampled the governing classes under your 
heel, you will thereby have saved us the trouble 
of chastising them for their insolence ; and then we 
will clasp hands across the Atlantic in joint sym- 
pathy with every people struggling to be free." 

The great offence of England, was an offence 
against the world, an act of rebellion against 
the moral government of God ; and we have no 
right to take the place of, the Almighty and com- 
pound her crimes for money. The wages of sin in 
the individual is death. The wages of sin in the 
case of a great nation, is destruction. And if it 
shall please God, in His wisdom, to visit upon the 
guilty old monarchy of England, the utmost penalty 



28 



of her high transgression, we at least can say " Thy 
will he doner 

It is time that the phiin truth should be spoken ; 
and frankness though a little disagreeable, will tend 
to promote ail adjustment of our differences with 
Great Britan. We are sick and tired of the con- 
ventional hjpocri^j that has so long characterised 
the intercourse between the public men of both coun- 
tries ; sick and tired of the everlasting songs that 
celebrate our pretended unity of race, language and 
institutions. The fact is that between the people 
of the United States and the people of England 
there may, and there does exist warm sympathy 
and sincere friendship. But between a growing 
hopeful people like ours, looking to the future, and 
rushing on in the path of improvement and reform 
and an old proud, expiring aristocracy clinging 
to the past and resisting all change, like that which 
has governed Great Britain, there is no friendship, 
there can be none. We have no opinions, no hopes, 
no ends in common. There is indeed one mutual 
sentiment ; they would rejoice over our downfall as 
tve certainly should at theirs. 

I have devoted so much time to England, that 
the review of other parts of our field must necessari- 
ly be brief; but "'good omens cheer us" from France, 
from Spain, from Italy and from all Europe. Napo- 
lean is purchasing a brief continuance of power by 
concessions to the people. Our morning papers tell 



29 



us that he has determined to grant the great boon 
of the responsibiliti/ of ministers. This is the prin- 
ciple upon which the English nation has withstood 
and advanced upon arbitrary power, until the Queen 
is tied hand and foot, and must obey her parliament. 
The experiment in France will ripen into fruits even 
faster then it did in England. This concession 
made and arbitrary power is dead in France. 

Spain is rocking in the throes of revolution. Left 
to herself she would be a republic within twelve 
months. We have recentlj'" sent a minister to that 
country to represent our opinions and sentiments. 
There he will meet the representatives of England 
and France. What is he to say to them? I know 
nothing of his instructions ; and am therefore in no 
danger of disclosing state secrets. But I know 
what he should say to them, and have a pretty 
clear idea of what, if left to himself, 
he would say. Spain is to-day, if the op- 
portunity be properly improved, the most important 
of all our missions. Her affairs are in that forma- 
tion state, where the proper course pursued by the 
representative of this great republic may contribute 
much to make her a republic; and that too without 
violating the law of nations. The time has passed 
in the history of the world, when nothing but force 
can avail in shaping the course of public events. 
Our minister will find in Spain a great republican 
party, the remnant of an aristocracy, and a people 
generally ready to receive with great joy the gospel 



30 



of equal rights. It will be in his power, in various 
ways representing this great nation, to encourage 
and direct the republican tendencies of that people. 
j!\nd to the representatives of France and Enghand, 
he should say : " this people have a perfect right to 
fashion their own institutions in their own way. The 
United States hope they will establish a Republic. 
Nevertheless, we do not propose to interfere in the 
matter beyond friendly advice ; because the law of 
nations, and the first principles of self government 
forbid. But the law of nations is our law as well as 
yours ; it binds you as well as us ; this law we will 
not violate, and you shall not violate this law. " 
" Simply this and nothing more " and Spain will be a 
Republic. Regenerated by free institutions, by the 
correction of abuses, the distribution of rights and 
privileges, and by the impetus that liberty will give 
to the enterpryse of her people, Spain may be once 
more what she once was a first class power ; and 
send forth, influences potent for the reformation of 
the world, which will be of ffir greater moment to 
man, than all the discoveries made by her ancient 
mariners. 

Italy too is hopeful t^round for republicanism. 
Her people are arousing from the lethergy of centu- 
ries, and looking to nationality and freedom, once 
more ; and the march of liberal thought has reached 
even the masses of Prussia, Austria and Russia. Ev- 
erything indicates an awakening, and an advance ; 



o 1 



and all changes hereafter, are likely to be in favor 
of the people, and against the privileged classes. 

In this condition of the worhl the United States 
should and must have a foreign policy. It is shirk- 
ing the responsibilities of our position, neglecting the 
duty God has cast upon us as a nation, to stand indif- 
ferent to the issue between Republican institutions 
and arbitrary power now going on all over the world. 
While slavery existed here, our representatives a- 
broad were constrained to silence. They had to say 
to Russia and Austria, "you may trample upon Hun- 
gary, we are oppressing the negro ; say nothing to 
us and we will say nothing to you." But we have 
cast out this fearful beam from our own eye, and are 
now authorized, by divine license, to consider the 
mote in our brothers eye. We are no longer a house 
divided against itself ; talking freedom and uphold- 
ing slavery. The liberation of our slaves has enfran- 
chised the nation. We ought hereafter to speak 
earnestly, and need not apprehend the taunt: "Phy- 
sician heal thyself." We must plant ourselves upon 
the principle of the law of nations, that every peo- 
ple have the right to govern themselves by such 
form of government as they please ; and that no 
other nation has a right to dictate upon the subject. 
But says some cautious soul, this means war, and war 
will result in taxation. Not so : it means peace ; 
peace, if we have to fight for it ; peace for ourselves 
and for all mankind. We say for instance that Spain 
has a right to become a Republic or a monarchy as 



32 



slie shall elect. But savs the objector, after you 
have said so, suppose Napoleon sends an army into 
Spain to set up a monarchy, then you must make war 
upon France. Not necessarily. We should then 
say to France thatshe had violated the law of nations, 
and given all other nations offence. But it does not 
follow that we should make war upon France. 
When England sent a military force into our terri- 
tory and captured the ship Caroline and sent it over 
the cataract, she gave us just cause for war. 
But we did not go to war with her. We treasur- 
ed it up as an affront for which she must some 
time answer. And in due time the settlement came 
to our satisfaction. When England sent forth the 
A-labama to destroy our commerce, she gave us 
cause for war. We have not made war yet ; and 
whether we over shall will depend upon cir- 
cumstances, and upon our own good pleasure. The 
assumption that war must follow if the United States 
objects to one nation's abusing aud oppressing an- 
other, ignores the spirit of our age and the influences 
of our modern national intei^course. It has been 
said that God and one m.in (3onstitute a majority. 
That is, one man, right, is stronger than all men 
wrong. A clear truth supported by one powerful na- 
tion, will soon be recognized by all nations. Napoleon 
said at St. Helena that Russia desired to deal with 
Turkey ; but that he would not consent that Russia 
should have Constantinople for that would give the 
dominion of Asia; and that Russia kept her hands 



oif. The protest of any fii'st cla; s power, against 
the intervention of Russia in the Ilunsrarian strntr- 
gle, would probably have saved that nationality. 
Hungary could have maintained her liberties against 
Austria ; but eighty thousand bayonets from Russia 
turned the scale and crushed out the nationality of 
a liberty loving people. We have grown to such 
importance as a nation, that we can no longer wink 
at one nation's oppressing another, or stand by while 
a wrong is committed which it is in our power to 
prevent, without being responsible, morallj^, for that 
wrong. But says the objector, Washington, in his 
farewell address counselled us to avoid all entangle- 
ment in the affairs of other nations : can any man 
be sound who differs from our Father Washiuirton? 
The farewell address spake the words of wisdom for 
his own generation, .and correctly enunciated the 
duty of our people at that time. We Avere then in 
our infancy ; three or four millions of people scat- 
tered over a wilderness of country, burthened with 
a debt we could not pay ; and our interference in 
European affairs under such circumstances would 
have been as ridiculous as it would have been 
ineffectual. It would have ruined us and benefited 
nobody. No nation, no individual, is in duty 
bound to attempt impossibilities. Washington was 
addressing a people then in the nursery ; and said 
in substance, "you are little boys; now hQ good little 
boys, and every body will love you." Helplessness is 
an immunity to a nation in its infancy, as to an in- 



34 



dividual child. But that condition has passed ; that 
immunity has ceased. We have attained our uian- 
hood, and n)ust now face the duties and bear the re- 
sponsibilities of manhood. We umsl be nhout our Fa- 
thers business. 

But says the objector, no matter if this is ou; duty : 
that will get us into a war, and increase taxation ; 
we had better not notice the outraa^es which one 
foreign nation may inflict upon another. We may 
live in peace and prosperity, though Hungary be 
trampled in the dust ; we may get very rich though 
despotism may violate all law in other places and 
extinguish every impulse or longing for liberty else- 
where 

. Away with this philosophy of gain, this wisdom 
of the pedlar. If it is right for us to stand by and 
silently witness wrongs we might arrest ; let us do 
so, because it is right, and not because it might cost 
money to do our duty. Everything is expen- 
sive ; it costs time to pray ; costs money to clothe 
your wives and educate your children ; costs money 
to sustain civil government, to administer justice, to 
carry forward the methods of our complex civiliza- 
tion. And what was this vast continent, its accumu- 
lating population, its rich fields, its exhaustless mines, 
its facilities for commerce, its immeasurable and yet 
undeveloped rescources of national wealth, given to 
us for? That we njight become the richest and most 
corrupt nation on earth ? Or have we received them 
from the Giv or of all good, to use in his service and in- 



oO 



trust for the benefit of our race ? What wouM you say 
of an individual who reasoned thus selfishly. I see a 
thief breaking into my neighbor's house ; shall I fold 
my arms and say nothing; I see a murderer pursuing 
my friend, shall I silently seek the shelter of my 
own house, lest by opposing the murderer I might 
get his ill will or his bad blows? You would 
pronounce me a sneak, the la\v would declare me an 
accessor}^, and punish me accordingly. The loss of 
honor, the neglect of duty, are greater calamities 
than war. Advance in the line of duty and God is 
our siiieid, who can harm us ; turn aside from duty, 
men will despise us, and God will destroy us. 

The brave young men who went forth from this 
College to suppress the slaveholders attempt to re* 
verse the decree of God, and exalt slavery above 
liberty, sleep in bloody graves, j-et live in our tender 
and our grateful remembrance. Their example ap- 
peals to our manhood and our conscience. They help- 
ed to carry ouf government through a crisis in its exis- 
tence ; to establish it firmly upon immutable truth ; 
and give it the grandest opportunity a nation ever 
had, to benefit mankind. It now devolves upon us 
wdio survive to determine whether their lives were 
laid down in vain. And in no way, I conceive, can 
we so truly honor them, ns in studying well and per- 
forming faithfully the duty they have helped to cast 
upon ns. If we prove equal to our opportunity, if 
we stand firmly for justice and for equality amono- 



t 



■^ 

36 

men, if we keep the lamp of liberty trimmed and 
burnino, and allow its liii:ht to shine from our alti- 
tude through out the woild, we honor them; they 
have not died in vain; therefore it seems to be ap- 
23ropriate to this occasion to enquire into our new 
duties and gird ourselves for their performance. 

They died for others, not for themselves ; and let 
us so live as to ^xert the influence of the exalted 
position they have conferred upon us for the welfare 
of mankind^ and not for the attainment of selfish 
ends. 



lBAgV2 



